A different kind of packed lunch

If you’ve peeked through the food posts in the archives, you probably noticed the bento-inspired lunches I’d posted back in 2008.

I fell out of making this kind of lunch after I started living with T. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think a large part of it is that when I lived alone, I had no shortage of room (or containers to store multiple batches of leftovers). But now that I’m living with someone who has a rather different view on meals than I do? We’ve got to compromise on what we buy and keep… and make for dinner.

Dinner’s the only meal we share everyday, both in the sense of “eating the same food” and “eating at the same time”; this is due to our different work schedules, meal preferences, and nutritional requirements. So, it’s usually a bit of a compromise. He makes an effort to include more veggies when it’s his turn to make dinner. (Even though half the time it’s just bagged salad greens. But it’s the thought that counts!) Me, I’ll try to include some meat, even if it’s just a small amount.

This means if I want to keep eating vegetarian meals regularly, I need to have them for lunch more often than not. So I’ve started making big batches of some sort of vegetarian meal on Sundays, and eating the leftovers throughout the week.

Last week, it was a batch of quinoa salad (which is actually vegan!). The week before that, it was spicy tofu and rice. This week, I’m going to try making a vegetarian cottage pie – we’ll see how that turns out. Recipes to come after a bit more tweaking!